Wednesday, January 28, 2009

FIRST SNOW OF THE YEAR...

I know that we residents in the DC Metro area aren't quite as hearty as some of our friends in other parts of the country in terms of Winter weather, but to us, a few inches is a big deal! Think 2 days off school and a delay tomorrow (although in our defense, it's pretty icy out there! )... Here's a video of Caroline's day in the snow - it's a few minutes long for some of our relatives who might be watching, but we wanted to put it all up there anyway!

**REMEMBER TO DISABLE THE MUSIC BY CLICKING ON THE BUTTON ON THE PLAYER TO THE LEFT OF THIS POST!!!***

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

IT'S A NEW DAY!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

WISH I WAS HERE...



...with a fabulous margarita rocks (no salt, please!) in my hand. It's 25 degrees here in DC today, with a wind chill factor of 12. I know my friends in the Midwest and other places have it much worse than us, so I can't complain too much, but to me, cold is cold is cold. Whenever you get below, say, 40 degrees, it doesn't really matter all that much what the actual number is - it sucks all around. I'm off to pull on my Uggs, gloves, scarf, and winter coat to head out and pick up Caroline from pre-school now... Think warm thoughts, friends!!!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

I'M JUST IN LOVE WITH...

...EM Tanner Designs! I think I'm going to pick up these for the girls:




The ones above are stock items, but you can personalize them pretty much any way you think would be cute! Although the prices are a bit of a stretch in this economy, I still think their printed t-shirts, as well as the other gear and gifts that they sell, are just adorable. Here are a few of my other favorites (the lunchboxes in particular almost make me not dread the day when I have to start packing lunches for school...):





Wednesday, January 7, 2009

OUR LITTLE BALLERINA...

Today was Caroline's last Ballet Tea Party Class at Kidville. She had so much fun during the past 16 weeks, and her instructors were really great at helping her learn some of the basics of ballet. I was really amazed that she actually learned several proper terms for some of the positions and moves (even if she is still a two-year-old in her execution of them!). We're sad that the class is over since we had a great time each week with the other little girls and their moms. Here are a few pictures from our last day...


Warming up in "butterfly" pose
The rainbow rope

Practicing posse'
Getting ready to head to the balance beam
Waiting for turn to do her "solo"
Jete' (leaps) during her solo

Releve' (tippy toes!)
Her favorite part - tea (water) and cookies with an Angelina Ballerina story


Showing Mommy her certificate - it was our last class!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

I'M CONTEMPLATING THIS PURCHASE...



I just think this bag from PBK is too cute. Even though I LOVE it, the white is definitely impractical for me, especially since it's a diaper bag, but they also have it in a cute mustard yellow with navy and white straps that I may be able to pull off with fewer issues. Hmm...

Monday, January 5, 2009

"YOU'RE GONNA LOVE MY NUTS..." AND OTHER LATE-NIGHT HILARITY...

I was lying in bed the other night, having trouble falling asleep after getting up for the 23rd potty break of the evening, and this commercial came on:

**BE SURE TO DISABLE THE MUSIC PLAYER TO THE LEFT OF THE SCREEN BEFORE VIEWING!!!**

Who knew that one little kitchen gadget can "make America skinny again, one slap at a time"?! BTW, this is the same guy of "Sham-WOW!" fame (which I have told Steve I wanted, like, 47 times and yet I did not find it in my stocking this Christmas... sigh). Feel free to post your favorite quotes from the commercial in the comment section!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

THE BABY'S ROOM (AKA MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION)...

As I headed into the new year, I swore to myself that January was going to be entitled "Get Ready for #2," starting with making some decisions about the new baby's room. Well, like clockwork, I woke up on New Year's Day in pretty much a panic - or should we call it nesting mode?! I headed straight to Pottery Barn Kids and finally made some decisions about the direction in which I want to head.

Basics-wise, we needed to buy a new crib, since we've decided to keep Caroline in hers for as long as humanly possible. I know her days in it are limited, but I have to say I find it to be such a relief that I can keep her in some sort of socially-acceptable cage for just a bit longer. :) We have a table that I am using as a changing table (the traditional ones aren't open underneath, which makes them tricky for my wheelchair), and Caroline's new room has built-in drawers, which means the armoire we used in her nursery at the old house is up for grabs. The swivel glider that's currently in the corner of her room is going to move into the baby's room, as well.

As much as I've been complaining about getting myself in gear about this room, now that I'm working on some of the creative parts of it, I'm getting excited! Caroline's nursery was somewhat preppy, with a cute seersucker patchwork bumper and a variety of pastels. Weirdly enough, I fell in love with this bedding that I think resembles Anthropologie a bit more than Ralph Lauren. I have more decisions to make about window coverings (I'm leaning towards blackout shades with simple white drapes), paint color, rug, and any additional storage we might need, but I'm feeling pretty good about where things are headed! Here are some of the purchases or ideas I've had so far...


BEDDING
I decided on the Brooke quilt and bumper, but decided to forgo the sheets, bedskirt, etc. that went with it - it was all a bit too much and I'm certain it would have had emotional and/or psychological ramifications should #2 have had to stare at it every day for the next few years (hee hee). We're just going to go with some plain jersey sheets and a solid bed skirt that coordinates.



FURNITURE
We're using Caroline's swivel glider, but it's not covered in blue. Instead, it's the green chenille that you'll see in the swatch below (it just needs a really good cleaning!).




I bought the Kendall crib (below) on New Year's day - it was on sale for $300 less than it is usually priced! They had to do a little bit of searching to find it in white, but my girls at PBK can work magic, it seems. The Berkley armoire that we purchased for Caroline's nursery is also going in the baby's room.



ACCESSORIES AND DECOR
I just thought these little coordinating owls were too cute. They were also on sale, so I picked them up, too! Caroline thinks one is the big sister and one is the little sister. The hatching chick art (below) is something I'm debating, but I don't know what we're painting the room yet, so it might just be too much green. We'll see!

SNAPSHOTS FROM CHRISTMAS...

Playing with her Kurt Adler Nativity set on Chritmas Eve
(it goes with Tomie's Little Christmas Pageant, by Tomie de Paola)

Leaving cookies for Santa before bed
Our "wet noodle" on Christmas morning (you'll notice that later in the
morning, she asked to put her pj's back on)
(we LOVE Melissa and Doug - totally cute and totally durable!)

A new tennis racquet like Daddy's (well, Daddy's wasn't a cool
Boots like Mommy's Uggs
Feeling 110% better by Christmas Evening!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR, AND ALL THAT JAZZ!

Hi friends! I've been on a mini-vacation from daily life (even though we didn't actually travel anywhere) since just before Christmas, and missed posting in a timely manner for various reasons. I wanted to let everyone know that we hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas/holiday and New Year! After Christmas Eve Children's Mass, where they put on this really adorable homily skit that combined the story of Olive, The Other Reindeer and the Nativity Story, Caroline got a quick-moving stomach bug at about 4 in the morning on Christmas Day, so it was a bit less climactic for her than I had hoped - such is life with a toddler (sigh). We only actually opened a few presents with her that morning, and truthfully are still opening a gift or two each day (the kid is going to begin to think that Christmas never ends and that she gets presents every day - wouldn't that be awesome?). My family came for brunch, Caroline took a big nap, and woke up well and a completely new person, so we did end up heading to my relatives' house for dinner on Christmas Night.



Our New Year's Eve was pretty low-key - Caroline stayed home with my parents and Steve and I headed to our good friends' house for cocktails and apps! So much nicer than having to try to wedge my big pregnant belly into something fabulous to impress the masses! The rest of our week has been pretty uneventful, too. I'll update you on some other specific goings-on in other posts, but in the meantime, Happy New Year!